World Filter

The whole area was silent and Mark's eyes fell on the surrounding destruction. From the air, they could see a straight line carved through the buildings as if a bulldozer had torn through anything that had gotten in its way. A dust cloud rose up through the channel of destruction and blocked their vision.

Sam didn’t even pause for a moment, she started charging after them at her top speed, pulling her stone spears with her.

Mark triggered [Telekineseis] and dashed after her. This Guardian was insanely strong and Mark was burning through resources but there was no way in hell he’d leave a friend to die just so they could escape. Besides he still owed the guy for saving him yesterday. He was slightly faster, so soon enough, he caught up and flew shoulder-to-shoulder with Sam.

That's when he saw her put her hand to her ear and the sound of her voice came over the comms.

“Squad, disengage! Get the engineers to safety and wait for orders. If I don't return, Chris, get them home”

“Boss we hear you loud and clear, be safe and godspeed!” Chris responded, there was hesitation in his voice but still accepted the order.

They were nearly there when Sam’s voice came through once more.

“Jon come in, are you there?!”

She waited for a response but none came.

“Goddamit, Jon. You better be alive!”

They were nearing the point where the devastation ended and they saw moving figures in the smoke below.

As things turned out, the Guardian's rampage had stopped because it had arrived in a large open field attached to the back of what looked like a school.

A sturdy fence had been trampled over and the Guardian now stood near the center, attacking something infront of it.

Getting near, they saw one very exhausted Jonathan, barely hanging on. His clothes and armor were shredded, while there was not a single part of his body that wasn't covered in either dirt, blood, or bruises.

He was only just managing to roll or duck out of the relentless assault of blows. Sam saw this, and the spears that had been circling her launched themselves ahead and plunged down in an arc, smacking into its back, drawing its attention away from Jonathan.

Mark noticed two things at once.

Firstly the creature's charge had attracted the attention of other Corrupted and they were charging through the broken fence.

Secondly, the Corruption around the Guardian was free and surging into their surroundings.

As they got closer Mark saw a massive dark wound on Jonathan but also patches of blackened skin across his whole body.

His construct kept the Corruption out but it was so bad that the surrounding grass was already turned a sickly yellow.

The surrounding levels were high enough around the creature, that it was visibly affecting the world around it.

Mark now realized why the system called this thing the Wandering Blight. Not only was its strength, speed, and intelligence ridiculously high for a Corrupted, but its opponents had to survive the constant waves of energy it put out.

Mark’s face was grim this thing had to die. If it was left unchecked it would accelerate them towards destruction.

As the two charged forward Mark made a decision and spoke using the comms.

“Sam, I need to get to him, you need to buy me a couple of seconds”

He really didn’t like this idea but with this thing's intelligence, he needed to make sure it was distracted or it might go in for the kill before Mark got there.

“Alright, you got it, just save him”

The two broke away and went in opposite directions around the creature. Sam released a couple of icicles toward its eyes and stopped just next to it. Seeing her so close, the Guardian turned its full attention to her, moving straight toward her.

Spreading her arms out to her sides, Mark saw dozens of bolts of fire and ice appear around her and rush forward like a cloud.

Mark's attention moved to Jonathan, who was panting while leaning on one leg and clutching his shoulder.

Mark began expanding his [Sculpt Mana] before he even got there, stretching it towards Jonathan.

The creature's attention was on Sam but apparently not all the way because it suddenly kicked out with its back legs just as Mark was passing. The only thing that saved him was that he had been watching it too and after that last feint, there was no way he was going to underestimate this thing.

[Telekinesis] flared and ripped Mark upwards, completely ignoring his forward momentum. It hurt like hell but getting hit would be way worse.

Spinning upward and righting himself he landed next to Jonathan. Prana was already at work, [Prana pulse] was telling him that his leg was broken along with massive amounts of tissue and bone damage near his shoulder. His back was so black and blue that it would be difficult to find a spot that wasn’t damaged. Then there was the Corruption, he had no idea what Jonathan’s Cv was at, but Mark could practically feel it coming off his skin like a fever. To make matters worse the Corruption coming from the Guardian was very similar to the Ghasts venom, in that it was slowing his healing.

Without the time to be gentle, Mark decided to cast [Benidiction]. He did not make this decision lightly. This would use half his remaining Prana but if they were going to survive this Jonathan needed to be able to move around the battlefield freely. The longer he took the longer Sam would need to distract the thing on the frontline and that put her in greater danger.

Mark put all his Prana into the construct making sure to leave 100 for the spell and cast [Benidiction].

While the spell was a great defensive tool, what Mark needed right now was its speed.

Prana condensed and moved to Jonathan, rushing to close all his wounds. The Corruption rose to fight Mark off as if it was defending its territory but the spell pushed it aside and healed what it could.

Jonathan's wounds closed and scared over almost instantly, but Mark could see because of the Corruption it was not as potent as the first time.

Not waiting for the lightheadedness to kick in he pulled his stored prana back from his construct and looked over to Sam just as a spear swung at her.

A blue barrier sprung up around her and stopped it but spent her crashing to the ground.

Mark could feel Jonathan was likely at eighty percent strength, Corruption notwithstanding, but he’d have to deal with that later.

Jonathan charged forward again and Mark hit him with another [Bestowal], aiming at increasing his speed.

Mark noticed Jonathan's Aura was surrounding him and building in strength. Almost like a growing vibration.

His concentration was brought back to the Guardian as Jonathan smashed into its back leg, which it answered by kicking out at him.

Dodging out of the way he dashed to the front to put himself between it and Sam, who was already up and channeling another spell that looked like a boulder of compressed rock as air currents churned around her.

Suddenly Sam’s voice came through the comms.

“Mark, Jon! Listen, the same formation as the dungeon, We can’t let this thing get away!”

The same formation meant she wanted to hit it with everything she had left while they tried to hold it down.

Sam had obviously come to the same conclusion that Mark had. They had to end this creature now. It was still moving around freely and though it didn’t look like it, they had inflicted quite a bit of damage to the Guardian. Its cracked armor and weeping wounds were the only signs of this.

Trusting her he decided to throw everything in with her plan Mark flared his [Scultp Mana]. Pushing it forward as bands of heavy force, wrapping first around its hind legs and then spreading up to its front. Locking it completely in place.

There was a reason Mark had not opened with this tactic as the moment he felt the creature strain against him his energy levels plummeted.

Though this disadvantage didn’t deter it as it continued to stab at Jonathan, who held on by making sure it was solely focused on him.

The surrounding Mana in the area flowed towards Sam and the building spell.

Mark's feet dug groves in the soft grass as the guardian tried to take a step forward dragging him with it.

Suddenly the Guardian's grip on the spear changed and it slid to the absolute base of the spear, extending the range to double its normal length, and swung it down towards Sam. The unexpected move caught Jonathan off guard but he did manage to jump and kick it off course, unfortunately not enough.

Seeing it coming, Sam fired the incomplete spell off and braced herself with a hastily erected shield.

The barrier diverted it only slightly before collapsing like shattering glass, the spear crashed into her side and sent her flying like a rag doll.

At the same time, the sharp basketball-sized rock flew forward and stabbed into the creature's chest homing in on a gap in its crushed armor.

Stabbing partway into the wound it remained there for a second and then detonated outward. From the looks of it, she had built a large amount of rock around a compressed ball of air. Building the equivalent of a massive granade that she had stabbed into its wound. The spell detonated partway inside the creature ripping at its insides. The only downside was she had not had enough time to build it up to the strength she needed. The result was a cry of ungodly pain from the Guardian and its chest exploding outward ripping its armor apart from the inside but not going deep enough to kill it.

Mark saw Sam collapse to the ground in a heap, the gold armor from her bracelet blinking out of existence, having used all its energy.

Marks [Sculpt Mana] was seconds away from collapsing and the creature’s thrashing was making it worse.

Jonathan saw Sam laying on the ground unmoving and the Aura in the area churned. All at once his energy filled the surroundings but unlike usual it began to condense. Focusing down to surround Jonathan, the vibration Mark had felt earlier increased and almost seemed to stabilize like the ringing of a tuning fork.

Jonathan's eyes gave off an intense red-gold flash, as a glow of the same color faintly wrapped around him.

Mark suddenly felt like someone was holding a blade to his throat as if the very world around him was watching his every movement and casting judgment.

That was just the runoff, the closer one got to Jonathan the harsher the feeling became.

The Guardian let out a cry as it gave Jonathan its full attention, bringing its weapon down in a flailing swipe.

Wounds began to appear all over the Guardian's body –each one looking like a tiny cut, no bigger than a couple of centimeters– but there were hundreds, thousands appearing each second.

Jonathan didn’t seem to notice this as he pushed off, dodging around the incoming attack, and stabbing his blade toward the gaping wound Sam had made.

His Aura condensed near the tip, bringing with it the promise of death.

The creature tried to retreat and bring its weapon back to defend itself but Mark clamped down and held it in place.

The blade sunk into the unprotected flesh and in a vertical slash, it tore its way through up to the creature's skull. Separating the creature into two halves from the waist up.

The Guardian stopped moving and its legs buckled under it as it collapsed to the ground.

Silence filled the area before Mark took off toward Sam.

He was halfway there when he felt the Corruption in the area. It wasn’t dissipating, in fact, it was building.

Mark had enough time to shout for Jonathan to move before it went off. Jumping back he used [Telekinesis] and pumped what he had left into [Sculpt Mana].

The corpse released a wave of Corruption so thick that it was almost a physical force. The speed was too fast and it enveloped Mark.

The Prana in his barrier felt like it was being eroded away. Realizing what was happening he drew in his Prana and poured what was left of his Mana into the construct.

The Corruption tore through his shield in seconds and Mark felt his Cv jump instantly, the ring deactivating at the same time.

When the wave passed Mark was left exhausted and the aches had returned.

Looking around he searched for the other two. Jonathan had made it to Sam but even with his speed it looked like they both still got hit by the ‘blast’. When Jonathan saw Mark he ran towards him while holding Sam to his chest. Sweat was beading on his brow and his eyes still glowed a dull reddish-gold. The Aura around him was still harsh though much more restrained.

The ‘explosion’ had robbed Mark of most of his Prana but he had managed to save some. Enough to use [Prana Pulse], he found she had a severe concussion and broken ribs. Luckily he had just enough left to stabilize her, even with the Corruption fighting him, but she’d need time to heal or more Prana when Mark could manage.

Mark looked back toward the fence and saw the familiar sight of frenzied Corrupted rushing in their direction.

Without much time they abandoned the Guardian's corpse and made a break for it.

Escaping from the field was not hard, even as messed up as they were, the only thing to show up so far were the basic Corrupted.

Managing to lose their tail, they found a small double-story apartment building. Slamming the door shut behind them Mark turned to Jonathan and said.

“Okay you need to learn to put up a ward or you’ll just draw more Corrupted here”

Jonathan nodded, but the persistent glow that had continued since he had used that finishing move finally faded.

At the same time, Jonathan rocked listlessly to the side, and blood began to pour from his nose. Mark watched as a small cut appeared on his cheek. Then, all at once, hundreds of cuts appeared across his body, and he collapsed.